Biography

Dr. Forrant is a professor in the History Department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, teaching courses on global labor issues, labor history, immigration, and international development. He is director's of the department's graduate program. He has been a consultant to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the International Labour Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Metalworkers Federation, and several trade unions. His research activities have been funded by, among others: the International Metalworkers Federation, the International Labour Organization, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Russell Sage Foundation, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the cities of Lowell and Leominister, Massachusetts.
Professor Forrant is the editor of three volumes on sustainable regional development, the author of numerous published articles and reports and a forthcoming book on industrial development and decline in the Connecticut River Valley and New England. Before completing his graduate education, he worked as a machinist and union business agent at the now closed American Bosch plant in Springfield , MA and ran a community-based economic development program.
He received the University of Massachusetts President's Award for Public Service in 1998. He received an American Antiquarian Society Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship in 2001 and during that year began research on Worcester Massachusetts-area machine tool firms in the period 1830-1875.
He analyzes and reports on the Massachusetts industrial economy for the journal Massachusetts Benchmarks, a joint publication of the University of Massachusetts and the New England Federal Reserve Bank and he writes a monthly column on the economy for the Lowell Sun.

Selected Awards and Honors

Teaching Excellence Award - UMass Lowell Department of Regional Economic and Social Development

President's Award for Public Service (1998) - University of Massachusetts Lowell

Forrant, R. (2014). Confronting Decline: The Political Economy of Deindustrialization in Twentieth-Century New England. The New England Quarterly, (3) 561-563.

Forrant, R. (2014). Review of David Koistinen, Confronting Decline: The Political Economy of Deindustrialization in Twentieth-Century New England. (87:3). University Press of Florida, 2013. New England Quarterly

Forrant, R. (2002). The International Association of Machinists, Pratt & Whitney, and the Struggle for a Blue-Collar Future in Connecticut. International Review of Social History, 47(SUPPL. 10) 113-136.

Forrant, R. (2001). Approaches to Sustainable Development: The Public University in the Regional Economy (pp. xv).

Forrant, R. (2001). Pulling Together in Lowell: The University and the Regional Development Process. European Planning Studies, 9(5) 613-628.

Forrant, R. (2001). The Rise of "The Rest": Challengers to the West from Late-industrialization Economies. Business History Review, 75(4).

One-week Summer Workshop on Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Industrialization and its Social and Economic Affects - Springfield Public Schools Teaching American History, 2011 - Springfield, MA

Taking Center Stage: Conflict and Collaboration in the Peopling of Massachusetts - Presentation on the Bread & Roses Centennial Collaboration and Public History, June 2011

Rethinking Cities and Communities in the Context of Globalization and Transnationalism - Trinity College Center for Urban and Global Studies symposium, November 2008

- The Institute of Higher Education Workshop on Exploring the Role of the University in Economic Development, September 2008 - University of Georgia

United States History since 1945, September 2008 - Lowell, MA

Inside and Out: Universities and Education for Sustainable Development, November 2005

Are Finance Control Boards the Answer to Job Loss, Shrinking Revenues, and Grinding Decline: The Springfield, Massachusetts and Camden, New Jersey Cases - Committee on Industrial Theory and Assessment Conference, October 2005

Springfield Job Loss and the City's Frayed Social Safety Net - Future of Work in Massachusetts Conference, April 2005

Globalisation and degenerative productive systems: the case of the Connecticut River Valley Robert Forrant, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Frank Wilkinson, University of Cambridge - Clusters, Industrial Districts and Firms: The Challenges of Globalisation, September 2003

Commentator on Regions, Nations and Globalization, panel session, Cooperation, Competition and Industrial Policy - Business History Conference, June 2003

The International Association of Machinists, Pratt & Whitney, and the Struggle for Connecticut's Blue-Collar Future - University of Massachusetts Amherst Economic History and Development Workshop, 2002 - Amherst, MA

The University and the Challenges of Sustainable Economic Development - Urban Affairs Association Conference, 2002 - Boston, MA

Engineering Postwar Industry, Too Many Bends in the River: The Collapse of the Connecticut River Valley Machine Tool Industry and the Disruption of the Shopfloor Skill Base, 1945-1990. - Hagley Museum and Library Conference, 2001

Staff Workshop on 19th Century Working Class Formation, September 2001 - Lowell, MA

Rethinking the Theory and Practice of Enterprise Governance: Labor's Challenges, Labor's Opportunities in the New Economy - Industrial Relations Research Association Symposium, 2000

Creative Work Systems in Destructive Markets - International Working Party on Labour Market Segmentation Conference, 2000 - Manchester, England

Providence, Rhode Island: Public Policy, Broad-Based Partnerships and the Transition to the New Economy - Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Territorial Development Service, Regional Review of Bergamo, Italy Benchmark Project, Paris, France., 2000

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: US Industrial Unions and the Lean, Mean Global Economy - Cambridge Journal of Economics and the Cambridge University Institute of Employment Rights conference on Economic Efficiency and Social Justice, 1999 - Cambridge, England

- Economic and Social Research Council Center for Business Research at Cambridge University conference on Corporate Restructuring, 1999

Building on Strengths: Helping Local Economies Become More Competitive - Appalachian Regional Commission Conference, January 1999 - Lexington, Kentucky

Work Rules, Job Content, and the Struggle For Worker Voice on American Shop-floors - University of Massachusetts Lowell Center for Industrial Competitiveness Seminar, 1997 - Lowell, MA

The Organizational Failure of the US Machine Tool Industry in the Face of Globalization - International Metalworkers Federation and International Labour Organization Conference: The Machinery Industry: Globalization, Employment and New Enterprise Strategies, November 1997 - Geneva, Switzerland

Industrial Modernization and Small Firms in Perspective - Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy and Economic Development seminar on Industrial Modernization: Policy, Practice, and Evaluation, April 1997